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Marko Mihkelson: Estonia has the possibility and obligation to support Ukraine in carrying out reforms

01.05.2014 / Press releases

The government of Ukraine has turned to Estonia with an appeal to use the experience and solutions of the Estonian e-state and to get support for carrying out reforms. “I believe that Estonia not only has the possibility but, proceeding from our permanently good relations and similar history, also the obligation to help Ukraine in implementing e-state solutions and carrying out reforms,” said the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu Marko Mihkelson.

“Estonia has a globally unique experience of creating the solutions for an integrated e-state that has become a part of our everyday life and way of thinking, has helped to accelerate the development of economy, made life easier for both the state and the people, and has greatly contributed to reducing corruption. The government of Ukraine is also facing these tasks today,” stressed Mihkelson.

“Ukraine has the greatest number of different taxes in the world, and it takes 390 hours each year to pay them, in comparison to 81 hours in Estonia. Another important problem is corruption, which has unfortunately become an ordinary part of everyday life and business,” said Mihkelson when describing the situation in Ukraine. He added that the transitional government of the Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has set reducing corruption and improving the business and investment climate as its priorities.

In connection with that, the Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman, who is responsible for the e-state of Ukraine, turned to Estonia as “the leading state in the field of of e-solutions” and asked Estonia to give them experts for creating the strategy for Ukrainian e-state, for preparing the legislation to support it and, if possible, for implementing Estonia’s e-state solutions. “It is very important to react to the appeal quickly and to show that Estonia is ready not only to be concerned about the situation in Ukraine, but also to support its words with actions,” Mihkelson said.

“For example, the Centre for Integrating Ukraine into Europe, an Estonian NGO, is presently putting together a group of experts for consulting the preparation of Ukrainian legislation, and I believe that the state of Estonia for its part should offer Ukraine X-Road and digital signature. If these are implemented in Ukraine, it would give the possibility to proceed with reforms at an accelerated pace,” Mihkelson stressed.